coronavirus pandemic - The African Mirror

Feb

2021

COVID-19 school closures: Traffickers eye children

KIERAN GUILBERT HUMAN traffickers worldwide are increasingly targeting children and will likely exploit school closures during the coronavirus pandemic to abuse the young, the United Nations said. Children make up a third of trafficking victims who are uncovered - a share that has tripled in the past 15 years, with girls mainly exploited for sex and boys forced into work, a report by the U.N. Office On Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found. About 49,000 victims were detected and reported in total in 2018 - up from 24,000 in 2016 - according to the Global Report on Trafficking in Persons, which was based…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Hiding from the sun, the stares and the killers

HUMAN RIGHTS

JAN BORNMAN SITTING on the bed in the room he shares with his mother and younger sister, Nsikelelo Mamba, 16, has to squint to better watch a programme on the television less than a metre in front of him. His sister, Samkelisiwe, 12, doesn’t have to squint quite as much, but her eyesight isn’t perfect either. The siblings have been spending most days over the past few months watching educational television and listening to educational radio programmes in an attempt to keep up their schooling. Since joining their mother in Nkomazi, in northeastern Mpumalanga, Nsikelelo and Samkelisiwe have not been…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Kenya Airways plans more pay cuts

COVID-19

KENYA Airways plans further pay cuts for employees of as much as 30% after the airline was hit by the coronavirus pandemic that has caused a slump in air travel, an internal memo has shown. The cuts follow those made in March last year following Kenya's first confirmed COVID-19 case, which prompted the government to suspend domestic and international commercial passenger air travel. The latest cuts, of 5% to 30% for workers with monthly earnings exceeding 45,000 shillings ($409), take effect this month and will run for six to 12 months, the company's CEO Allan Kilavuka said in an internal…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

In pictures: How COVID-19 changed our cities in 2020

MULTIMEDIA

EMMA BATHA FROM compulsory mask-wearing to pop-up cycle lanes and sanitising robots, the coronavirus pandemic has changed our cities in countless ways. Here are some images from 2020. A dog wears a mask inside an autorickshaw in Chennai, India, March 30, 2020. REUTERS/P. Ravikumar As lockdowns took hold, some of the world's noisiest and most crowded cities became eerily quiet, including metropolises like New York - dubbed the "city that never sleeps". Clockwise: Deserted streets, Paris, France, April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol. The Octavio Frias de Oliveira Bridge, Sao Paulo, Brazil, March 24, 2020. REUTERS/Leonardo Benassatto. A policeman crosses a street in…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Tech’s long COVID-19: What privacy battles will define 2021?

COVID-19

UMBERTO BACCHI THE coronavirus pandemic added a new layer to the ever-developing debate around privacy and technology in 2020, as governments and companies turned to tools like contract tracing apps and employee monitoring software. As the year comes to an end, the Thomson Reuters Foundation asked privacy experts around the world what issues will shape the conversation in 2021: MASS SURVEILLANCE - Ella Jakubowska, policy officer, European Digital Rights, Brussels "In 2021, one big challenge for civil society will be protecting fundamental rights in Europe from the threat of mass surveillance. On the one hand, the European Commission is poised…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

The coronavirus pandemic drove life online. Is video streaming pushing up harmful emissions?

ENVIRONMENT

LIN TAYLOR WITH COVID-19 restrictions in place globally, our reliance on digital technology sky-rocketed this year as video calls, emails, instant messaging and virtual entertainment replaced face-to-face interactions in and out of the workplace. Between February and April, at the peak of worldwide lockdowns, global internet traffic surged by nearly 40%, driven by video conferences, online gaming, streaming and social media, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). At this rate, web traffic is set to double by 2022, with mobile internet users expected to jump to 5 billion by 2025 from 3.8 billion last year, the IEA predicts. And all…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

‘I’m no party boy’: One Nobel winner won’t miss the pomp at low-key awards

WORLD

SIMON JOHNSON SPARE a thought for this year's Nobel Prize winners. Gone are the ball gowns, white tie and tails, concerts, banquets and adulation that come with arguably the world's most coveted awards. With the coronavirus pandemic tearing through Europe, celebrations this year will be modest and remote. Roger Penrose Instead of wining and dining in Stockholm and Oslo later this month, in many cases winners will receive their award in their home country at an agreed venue from a Swedish diplomat. The number of guests will depend on local restrictions, and plans are still subject to change given the…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Biden, Trump celebrate Thanksgiving quietly at home as U.S. pandemic rages

WORLD

SIMON LEWIS and JEFF MASON DEMOCRATIC President-elect Joe Biden and sitting Republican President Donald Trump, like millions of Americans, were celebrating Thanksgiving quietly at home on Thursday, as the coronavirus pandemic raged across the United States. Biden was spending the holiday in the small seaside town of Rehoboth, Delaware, where he and his wife Jill have a vacation home. The Bidens are hosting daughter Ashley Biden and her husband Dr. Howard Krein for the holiday meal. The former vice president, appearing with his wife Jill in a video message posted to his Twitter account on Thanksgiving, said his family typically…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Feminist’ mayors vow all-out drive against gender inequality in pandemic

AFRICITIES

ANASTASIA MOLONEY CITIES must move to the frontline of efforts to fight gender inequality that has grown worse in the coronavirus pandemic, said six mayors from three continents as they joined forces in a new network to advance women's rights. Around the world, women's jobs, unpaid labor, health and safety have been upended by the impacts of COVID-19 and need critical attention, said the organizers of City Hub and Network for Gender Equity (CHANGE). The network aims to promote and share among city mayors around the world innovative projects focused on combating gender inequality. "Local governments can and should lead,"…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

Biden to name first Cabinet picks, plans scaled-down inauguration

WORLD

DOINA CHIACU U.S. President-elect Joe Biden will announce the first of his Cabinet appointments on Tuesday and is planning for a scaled-down inauguration due to the coronavirus pandemic, aides have said, as he lays the foundation for his new administration despite President Donald Trump's refusal to concede. Since Biden, a Democrat, was declared the winner of the November 3 election two weeks ago, the Republican president has launched a barrage of lawsuits and mounted a pressure campaign to prevent state officials from certifying their vote totals, suffering another emphatic legal setback on Saturday in Pennsylvania. Ron Klain, Biden's choice as…